System and method for using voice over a telephone to access, process, and carry out transactions over the internet

• US 7,974,875 B1
• Filed: 03/21/2000
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Quilici, Alexander E., Carriere, Steven Jeromy, Woods, Steven Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Akintola; Olabode
• Application Number:
  US09/532,509
• Time in Patent Office: 4,123 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/105 Financial transactions and auctions, e.g. bidding
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A method for executing a transaction related to an item or a service using a telephone includes providing information identifying the item or the service, providing a query as to a transaction to be performed in which the transaction is related to the identified item or service, and sending to a server system a request to execute the transaction related to the identified item or service in response to a user answer. The transaction is executed without the user performing a single action on a computer interface.

Claims

1. A voice-controlled transaction system adapted to process transactions over the Internet, the service comprising:

a user interface; and

at least one database coupled to the user interface, the user interface coordinating voice communications with a user, the voice communications including item or service information and transactions associated with the item or service, the at least one database storing item and service information;

an advertising subsystem configured to selectively provide the user interface with advertisements targeted to particular users based on selection criteria, wherein the advertising subsystem is configured for setting advertisement selection criteria based on one or more aspect of user-centric information selected from among a group of criteria consisting of;

user demographics;

location demographics;

current selected vertical domain of interest;

advertising sales criteria; and

lack of repetition;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for querying said database to determine if said database contains pre-existing criteria information for said end user;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for generating a first set of advertisements;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for generating weights for said first set of advertisements based a context of said advertisements;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for determining whether said context is enough to accurately know what advertisement from the first set of advertisements the user most wants;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for deciding if said context is enough to accurately know what the user most wants;

wherein the advertising subsystem is further configured for playing said advertisement from the first set of advertisements if said context is enough to accurately know what the user most wants;

whereby transactions are executed without the user pressing a button, clicking a mouse, or any other manual input to a computing device.

2. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for creating a record of advertisements that were played from said first set of advertisements.

3. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for recording whether or not an advertisement that was played from said first set of advertisements was completed.

4. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for recording whether or not an advertisement that was played from said first set of advertisements subject to a user selecting to hear more about a subject of said advertisement.

5. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, further comprising a network interface coupled to the at least one database, the network interface being configured to access the item and service information over the Internet, process requests related to the item and service information, and carry out transactions involving the identified item or service.

6. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 5, further comprising a fusion engine configured to compare information obtained from at least one web site and selectively establish canonical data files corresponding to information gathered from multiple web sites.

7. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, further comprising a customer manager configured to record user information associated with user preferences and user behavior related to the service.

8. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 7, wherein the customer manager is configured to provide user information to the user interface such that the user interface may personalize the service for particular users.

9. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, further comprising an existant subsystem coupled to the at least one database, the existant subsystem being configured to manage all information into and out of the at least one database.

10. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is configured for identifying a particular user with said user'"'"'s phone number.

11. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 10, wherein said user interface is configured for updating said user'"'"'s preferences during said voice communications.

12. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 10, wherein said user interface is configured for accepting the input of said user'"'"'s credit card information and storing said credit card information.

13. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for creating a record of advertisements that were played from said first set of advertisements.

14. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for recording whether or not an advertisement that was played from said first set of advertisements was completed.

15. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said advertising subsystem is further configured for recording whether or not an advertisement that was played from said first set of advertisements subject to a user selecting to hear more about a subject of said advertisement.

16. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is configured for asking a series of questions that allow the user to uniquely identify the product they are interested in.

17. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is configured for returning product pricing and availability information from various online retailers.

18. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is configured for ordering products and services.

19. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is configured for comparing similar products and services on different web sites.

20. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 1, wherein said user interface comprises a word-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine for speech-based inputs.

21. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 20, wherein said user interface is further configured for accepting text-based inputs via a keypad if said speech-based input fails.

22. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 8, wherein said customer manager is further configured for maintaining user preferences based on the items and services involved in said transactions and the pricing information associated with said transactions.

23. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 8, wherein said customer manager is further configured for maintaining user demographic information by analyzing a history of said transactions.

24. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 8, wherein said customer manager is further configured for pulling user preferences from users'"'"' personalized web pages.

25. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 8, wherein said customer manager is further configured for creating user preferences by programming a spider to search a network for new preferences likely to be associated with existing user preferences.

26. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 8, wherein said customer manager is further configured creating user preferences by programming a spider to search a network for new preferences likely to be associated with existing user preferences.

27. The voice-controlled transaction system of claim 7, wherein said customer manager stores a personal identification number for said users and authenticates said user using said personal identification number before completing a transaction.